HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

Synonyms: example, instance, case1, illustration, specimenThese nouns refer to what is representative of or serves to explain a larger group or class. An example is a typically representative part that demonstrates the character of the whole:"Of the despotism to which unrestrained military power leads we have plenty of examples from Alexander to Mao"(Samuel Eliot Morison).An instance is an example that is cited to prove or illustrate a point: offered the statistics as an instance of why the penal system needed to be overhauled. A case is an example belonging to a particular category: a case of life imitating art. An illustration clarifies or explains:"[The author] has provided an illustration of a first-rate experimental mind at work"(Richard Bernstein).Specimen often denotes an individual, representative member of a group or class: This poem is an excellent specimen of her work.

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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